Festivals
Magic Lantern festival
Lights! Camera! Instagram filter! The UK’s answer to China’s New Year’s lantern festival returns, this time to Chiswick House Gardens, with more than 50 glowing installations on a Silk Road theme (not the drugs darknet; the original one, the ancient trade network linking Asia to the west). Expect plenty of animals (including pandas) and the odd admiral’s ship.
At Chiswick House Gardens, W4, from Thursday 19 Jan to Sunday 26 Feb
Slapstick festival
There’s a festival for everything these days – cat food, baby jumping, camel wrestling – but this event in Bristol dedicated to silent comedy has been running for 13 years. There are special screenings of “funny women” Colleen Moore and Annette Benson, tributes to Victoria Wood and Rik Mayall and a rare showing of Pierre Étaix’s The Suitor.
At various venues from Wednesday 18 Jan to Sunday 22 Jan
TV
Seinfeld
Finally, all of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David’s seminal sitcom is finally available to stream in full. Newcomers can witness the full neurotic majesty of George Costanza – arguably the greatest sitcom character ever – while the rest of us can happily revisit Jerry’s “puffy shirt”, The Soup Nazi et al.
On Amazon Video
A Series Of Unfortunate Events
The latest major series to land on Netflix stars Neil Patrick Harris (the most annoying one from How I Met Your Mother) as Count Olaf, an evil conman who tries to adopt the Baudelaire orphans to inherit their family fortune. It may sound childish, but it’s so much more: a cross between Tim Burton and Wes Anderson, it’s knowing, daring, and very funny.
On Netflix
Bright Lights
Christmas 2016 will be remembered for the sad, untimely passing of George Michael, but also of mother-daughter actors Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher. This doc about their unusual yet touching relationship had already been slated, but the air date was brought forward from March to celebrate their remarkable bond. Bright Lights looks at the pair’s closeness in later life but touches on Fisher’s turbulent times dealing with drugs and her mental health, as well as her mother’s struggle to come to terms with ageing. A Hollywood story – bizarre but brilliantly warm.
On Sky Go
Exhibitions
Matisse: Drawing With Scissors
Here’s another chance to cop some of the original paper cutouts behind the posters you may recall from arty student houses, such as Blue Nudes, The Snail and Sorrow of the King, as it goes on tour from the Hayward. Opening on Saturday at Gerald Moore Gallery in London, this bold display of his final works is sure to brighten up any dull, grey January. The exhibition runs until 11 February.
At Gerald Moore Gallery, SE9, from Saturday 14 Jan to Saturday 11 Feb
Music
Loyle Carner
UK rap dude Carner was a hyped artist in 2016 – and with reason. His debut album, Yesterday’s Gone, pairs his rhymes about self-discovery with tasteful gospel, boom-bap, jazz and lilting guitars.
Yesterday’s Gone is released on Friday 20 Jan
Film
Manchester By The Sea
Casey Affleck won a Golden Globe for best performance by an actor in a motion picture – drama for his role as loner handyman Lee Chandler in Kenneth Lonergan’s stark look at coming to terms with the awful tragedies life throws at us and finding solace in each other. Not the easiest watch for January, but beautiful all the same.
On general release
Prevenge
Alice Lowe is best known for her hilarious turn in the Ben Wheatley-directed horror-com Sightseers, about a caravanning-couple-turned-accidental-serial-killers. Clearly, Lowe has a taste for blood, as she returns in her self-directed “pregnancy horror” Prevenge. She’s holding preview screenings and Q&As around the UK before it opens officially in cinemas on 10 February.
Dance
Blak Whyte Gray
Just before Danny Boyle returns with T2 Trainspotting, the hip-hop duo who helped him choreograph some of the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony are back, too. Kenrick Sandy and Michael Asante’s Boy Blue Entertainment showcase a moody piece reflecting our world in flux.
At the Barbican, EC2, until Saturday 21 Jan
